Chapter 540: Storms Rising

Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios

On the seventh day after the Hellfire Council convened, an enormous Gate of Hell opened in the kingdom of Kehjistan in Sanctuary, and the army of Hell poured out like a tide.

The Burning Hells officially launched an attack on Sanctuary, and the one leading this army was Inarius, who had just been released from prison!

This creator of Sanctuary, the father of the nephalem, had gone completely crazy. The long torture of the seven demon kings for more than a thousand years had utterly defeated his mind. The dark power of the Burning Hells had completely corrupted him into a fallen angel. After being released, although he had recovered his body and limbs, the light wings on his back had already turned grayish-black, and what filled his brain was only endless hatred and fear. He only wanted to vent his crazy thoughts of wanting to destroy everything to his heart’s content.

On this land that he had created, Inarius caused immense damage. In just a day, most of the kingdom of Kehjistan had fallen. The ground that Inarius and his army walked on was scorched black by flames, and the rivers they passed through became dry and cracked. Plants withered or even mutated, animals died and stank, and countless maggots and flies wreaked havoc in the bones, enjoying a feast of decay. Fires ignited in the forests, and venom flowed in the swamps.

In the wilderness, human bones could be seen everywhere. They might have been adventurers, thieves, or soldiers of the human kingdoms when they were alive. But now that they were lying on the ground, their swords and armor broken, the flesh of their bodies long bitten off by demons. Their bones were full of bite marks, and all kinds of poisonous insects crawled in and out of the skeletons’ eye sockets. The ground was dead silent, but the carrion-eating crows and vultures in the sky let out cheerful and strange cries, as though countless souls were wailing and constantly cursing this purgatory-like world.

The tragedy of the kingdom of Kehjistan quickly spread throughout Sanctuary. Although the various kingdoms of Sanctuary had already expected the invasion of Hell after the destruction of the High Heavens and had made some defenses against it, they didn’t expect the demons to arrive so quickly, so they were caught off guard.

It had to be said that the humans of Sanctuary still had the terrible issues of human nature. Before the arrival of the demons of Hell, the various kingdoms were still arguing with each other. The various kings, aristocrats, and religions couldn’t form a true unified resistance and alliance. Even when the kingdom of Kehjistan asked the surrounding kingdoms for help, the surrounding kingdoms were still unwilling to believe it because it involved their finances and interests.

It was not until the news of the destruction of Kehjistan that the various kingdoms in Sanctuary woke up from their dream. The sense of crisis of their destruction truly descended on them at this moment, and humans hurriedly recruited soldiers to form a defense line to resist the invasion of the demons.

Although angels were not very friendly to the humans of Sanctuary, they were still the archenemies of demons. In the past, when the High Heavens was still around, Heaven would definitely send troops to fight demons in such situations. But now that the High Heavens was gone, humans could only rely on themselves. Only at this time did the people who had participated in expelling angels feel deep regret. They realized that they had personally buried their reinforcements…

But it was too late to regret now. The people of Sanctuary could only muster their spirits and participate in the war. Fire beacons representing the invasion of demons lit up at the borders of the various kingdoms. They opened the doors of their treasuries, distributed a large number of armor and weapons, and dispatched soldiers to the front line in a hurry.

The humans of Sanctuary all had nephalem bloodlines. The only difference was whether they were thin or not. Thus, most of the soldiers actually had a certain amount of combat strength. They could use weapons proficiently and had certain magic abilities. Moreover, after training, the battle formations and defensive lines they formed could deal with some ordinary demons. But the high-rank demons and demon lords in the Hell army needed stronger nephalem to deal with them.

These powerful elite nephalem warriors were generally nurtured by various religious organizations. Fortunately, these religious organizations recognized the dire situation and sent their strongest warriors to the front line to help.

Kehjistan was originally a powerful kingdom in Sanctuary, and the mages were born here. But because of the inquisitive nature of mages, a profession that pursued truth, the mages had summoned the first demons in Sanctuary when they were experimenting with magic. It was precisely because of this that the Burning Hells discovered the existence of Sanctuary. Moreover, because of the war caused by the division of the mages, the kingdom rapidly weakened. Not long ago, the Lord of Lies, Belial, had occupied the body of their king, causing great chaos.

This kingdom was a rather tragic country. Because of its special geographical location, the Burning Hells had chosen it as the eruption point for this invasion. Kehjistan was in the center of Sanctuary. When the Hell army emerged from here, it would quickly attack in all directions with this spot as the center. The advantage was that the Hell army could attack the surrounding kingdoms at the same time, forcing the human defense line to extend infinitely.

This strategy had been proposed by Azmodan, the military advisor of Hell. He was one of the few strategic talents who could command large-scale wars among the seven demon kings. Of course, he didn’t appear personally this time but let Inarius take the lead. The fallen Inarius was now the best tool for the Burning Hells.

The longer the defense line, the more strained the human resistance would become. The number of powerful nephalem elite warriors was relatively small to begin with, and after investing in the defense line everywhere, it was only a drop in the bucket. Even though humans had done their best to resist, kingdoms still fell from time to time, cities turned into ruins, and fertile fields turned into scorched earth.

Pessimism quietly spread among ordinary humans. Especially when news came from the front line that the one leading the army of Hell to attack Sanctuary was actually their creator, Inarius, this pessimism and depression became even greater.

However, it had to be said that the nephalem had a strong spirit of resistance in their bones. They had resisted angels, demons, and even their mother, so it didn’t seem difficult for them to resist their father now. Ordinary nephalem might feel pessimistic, but the elite nephalem warriors, who had awakened their nephalem power and were constantly becoming stronger in battle, would not. They relied on their bravery to counterattack the Hell army time and time again. Many warriors even charged into the depths of the enemy camp and tried to execute the decapitation tactic against Inarius.

However, regardless of what was said about Inarius, he was actually very powerful. He was once Tyrael’s deputy, an existence second only to the five Archangels. Compared to demons, he was above the lord level and not yet a demon king.

After creating Sanctuary, he had always been the controller of the Worldstone. Not only could he weaken the nephalem, but he could also strengthen himself.

In fact, when the Worldstone still existed, Inarius was the strongest in

Sanctuary. If not for this, it would have been impossible for him to banish Lilith. Now that the Worldstone had been destroyed, Inarius could no longer use its power, but Mephisto had found Malthael’s divine spark for him…

The current Inarius could be said to have the combat strength of an Archangel, or rather, a demon king. In the army of Hell, he was quite difficult to deal with.

Except for the nephalem warriors who had entered the High Heavens under Tyrael’s leadership and participated in defeating Diablo, it wasn’t easy for the other nephalem warriors to kill him! In several decapitation attacks against him, Inarius had killed many nephalem.

In just over two months, the Hell army led by Inarius spread throughout Sanctuary like cancer cells, but no one could stop him.

During this time, Roy, Mephisto, and the other demon kings didn’t appear and just hid behind the scenes to observe. They knew that Lilith would definitely appear.

Roy didn’t continue to stay in the Burning Hells. He didn’t have the mood to compete with the seven demon kings for the limited territory of Hell, nor did he fancy it. After Inarius led the army out, Roy left Hell alone. This time, he went straight to the Frozen Sea and found a giant iceberg in the sea. He stopped on the iceberg and observed the development of the war through the Demon Eyes that he had left in Sanctuary while slowly engraving a magic formation here, preparing to summon a huge Gate of the Abyss here.

The seven demon kings didn’t know what Roy was doing. In view of the fact that Roy had hidden after descending and then suddenly erupted with a battle record of flattening the High Heavens, the seven demon kings didn’t find his disappearance strange and only thought that he was planning something again.

Roy had never shown any hostility toward the seven demon kings, so they thought that he was now on their side. Even if he was planning something, it was probably to deal with Lilith’s arrangements, so they were naturally happy to see it happen.

When storms swept all over Sanctuary, Roy finished his Gate of the Abyss. Because Sanctuary was a world sandwiched in Purgatory Spaces, if it directly connected to the Abyss from here, the commotion caused would be immense.

When Roy descended, it was like this. But this time, he chose a location on the Frozen Sea. No matter how big the commotion was, mortals wouldn’t be able to observe it. Trag’Oul, the only world-soul titan here, might know and sense it, but he would probably not dare to appear and stop him.

With Roy’s demon king strength, the Gate of the Abyss he opened was extremely huge. The black Gate of the Abyss was more than a kilometer tall. After stabilizing with an ominous aura, the first thing that flew out of the Gate of the Abyss was Rafaro’s enormous head.

“Ah, another new world?”

With a resounding dragon roar, Rafaro’s emotional voice sounded in Roy’s mind. His colossal body continuously stretched out from the Gate of the Abyss. “My master, after so long, have you finally remembered to summon me?”

“Cut the crap!” Roy snorted. “Are Julia and Benia here?”

“Just behind!” Rafaro replied. His body finally emerged from the Gate of the Abyss, and he hovered in the sky. At the same time, two petite figures rushed out of the Gate of the Abyss impatiently and flew toward Roy.

“Darling!!!” Julia and Benia jumped into Roy’s arms excitedly and sniffed his scent desperately.

Although the flow of time in Sanctuary was slightly different from that of the Abyss, it was generally about the same. Roy had been here for a few years, and about the same amount of time had passed in the Abyss.. Julia and Benia had been missing Roy so much that they were about to go crazy…